In New Zealand, costs are awarded on a scale to the party who succeeds in litigation but only if that party is represented. McGuire v the Secretary of Justice [2018] NZSC 50 dashed hopes for an end this rule (what is called the “primary rule” in the case), which would have brought New Zealand to the …

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The very productive and dynamic Legal Design Lab at Stanford Law have released a new project recently called “Learned Hands”. It is described as: … a game in which you spot possible legal issues in real people’s stories about their problems. You read the stories, and then say whether you see a certain legal issue …

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The Chief Justice recently gave an interesting Sir John Graham Lecture at the Maxim Institute. The whole address is available here and it was followed by a Q&A session available here – she is an excellent speaker and she traversed a wide range of material such as access to justice, open courts, the fragility of …

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The Sunday Star Times, a nationally distributed paper, ran a story this weekend on access to civil legal aid. This was quite surprising (and pleasing), as it tends not be a headline grabbing topic. It was likely picked up from the article in this month’s LawTalk written by lawyer Steven Zindell, which uses statistics he …

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The Legal Issues Centre (the Research Centre that I direct) has just released a series of animated videos explaining New Zealand’s civil legal process. We’ve set up a YouTube channel and have released an initial series of nine videos. The idea for this project came out of my thesis work on litigants in person. I had …

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I was back for LawFest 2018 having attended for the first-time last year. Sir Ray Avery gave an excellent keynote, pointing out three aspects of New Zealand culture that makes us a country where innovation can occur with ease: we are not fond of rules, happy to shake up the status quo, and we dare …

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I’ve put together a research project that looks to a future where New Zealand is likely to follow the online court trend, a trend that is already taking off in British Columbia and England and Wales. The study is co-funded by the University of Otago Legal Issues Centre and a generous grant from the New …

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Our Chief Justice recently gave an insightful and searing speech (as is her custom) on the state of our criminal justice system called “Managing Criminal Justice”. I commend reading the speech in full, there is a lot there. There is also an interesting interview with the President of the Criminal Bar Association about the speech …

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Should anyone be able to access the court to vindicate their legal rights? Or should the court prevent access if there is only minimal harm or minimal financial gain at stake? That is a question addressed in Justice Palmer’s decision handed down this week in Sellman v Slater [2017] NZHC 2392. This case involves the …

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The University of Otago Legal Issues Centre is launching a small experiment today - we want to see if we can gather up some experiences from clients about finding a lawyer and working with lawyers. The website is yourlawyerstory.org.nz and is based on story sharing websites in various parts of the community sector. The impetus for …